


Between Your Shoulder Blades

by Pixelcat345



Category: A Separate Peace - John Knowles
Genre: Fluff, Gratuitous Kisses, M/M, Minor Angst, Mutual Pining, Needy!Finny, One Shot, Pining!Finny, Pining!Gene, Unsure when this is set, but finny never breaks his leg, first i love you’s, makeout
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-14
Updated: 2021-02-14
Packaged: 2021-03-16 02:27:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,486
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29446278
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Pixelcat345/pseuds/Pixelcat345
Summary: Finny really, really needs to know if Gene feels the same way as him even though they’re making out, shirtless in Gene’s bed. And asking someone like Gene to confess just how deep his feelings go for someone like Finny? You’re too much, Finny.
Relationships: Gene Forrester/Phineas "Finny"
Kudos: 15





	Between Your Shoulder Blades

Finny knows best how to tear me apart without a drop of intention. He crowds me up against the wall and pulls the pillows from between my legs to place himself there instead. His mouth is clumsy and perfect in their excitement against my own struggling to keep up with his. His hands stuffed themselves underneath the hem of my sweater, grabbing me through my undershirt like he wanted to slip underneath but unwilling to do so.

I’m about to pull away to consent, but he keeps me captive against the wall, holding me so secure and steady in his restless arms and needy mouth that there was little I could do to escape. Not that I had a desire to.

“Come on, Gene, what’s with this dizzy shirt?” he pants. It’s rare to catch him whining, but when he does it’s usually something inconsequential.

“You didn’t let me free, Finny.” I choke on a gasp when warm, curious palms slide up my sides. Fire blooms in their wake.

They’re slow and appreciative creatures dipping into my waist and brushing up my ribs. Deliberate and relishing in a way distinctly not Finny-like, yet Finny-like all the same. It’s a behavior that seems to be reserved just for me. Careful checking and thorough explorations. 

Then, he’s tearing my top layers off. “Never wear a sweater again.”

After my undershirt is robbed off me, Finny knocks our foreheads together as he wanders about my torso in a frenzy of exploration. His hands feast on the pleasing firmness and dips of my chest and abdomen like they need to chart every inch to record later. 

“That tickles.” Fingers press a little harder into my ribs, making me jerk. “Hey!”

Finny ignores me, too busy with my collarbones. “You look bloody pleasing.”

His fingers flirt at the edge of my pants, and there’s a flutter of surprise and nerves, but they mellow out. I’m ready to let him explore there, too, if he really wanted it, but he skitters away, and smashes our lips together. It knocks our teeths together, and it hurts, but Finny takes it in stride and snakes his hands around to enjoy my back. 

The fabric rolled up at his elbows itch purely because it’s not warm and it’s not Finny. I make him take his shirt off, and he scrambles to do so. Once off, he stays there, a distance away from me to watch my reaction with extreme interest. I look away.

Finny crawls forward and sweetly slots his lips against mine. Soft and featherlight. “I want you to look at me, too.”

I flush. He has no clue how much I do. “I’m looking.”

“No, Gene, please.” Another soft whine and my breath’s tripping up. “Watch me like I watch you.”

“And how’s that?”

“You don’t know?” Finny sounds a mix between suprised and amused. “You really don’t know?”

I’m a born liar. I hope that Finny doesn’t find out one day. I hope he doesn’t organize me into a formula and plug it into every single lie I’ve ever told. “No.”

“Well, I,” Finny adds a secretive melody to his words, “love watching everything about you. I thought I’d get bored watching you make inane little scritches in your notes and get stuck on one page for five minutes, but…”

“You’re obsessed with me, huh?” It’s supposed to be a joke.

“Tell me you are, too.” 

I can’t say anything. I don’t want to give Finny the skeleton key to unlock everything. 

“Gene?” His face borders on upset. “Don’t tell me….”

“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t feel something, Finny.” My voice goes breathy without my permission, betraying more than I’d like.

“Just something?” Finny sits back, hurt.

“...it’s more than that.”

“Tell me. I need to know.” Finny draws up a knee to hug.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

“Gene.”

It feels like a warning. “What?”

“You’re going to make me cry.” Finny flops over. 

“Jesus, Finny. I wouldn’t do all this if I didn’t feel like this.” I card a hand through my hair, panic and guilt making my heart race. “Come here.”

He burrows into my blankets, face down. He’s not going to budge. 

What an absurd circumstance. I can’t believe he can’t see how badly affected I am or hear how hard my heart is thumping. Please, Finny, just look up. Please look up and see how unraveled I am.

When he doesn’t heed my prayer, I slide a hesitant palm over his lower back, feeling his muscles tense at the touch, then relax. I follow the dip of his spine to the spot between his shoulder blades, the blind spot. I live in this blind spot of his. Nearest to his heart yet the perfect place to kill him. He would never suspect an internal attack, never suspect that I’ve deceived him, never suspect that I betrayed him with my blind bitterness.

“I hated you so much, Finny,” I mumble just loud enough for him to hear. It’s an easy admission to make because it’s a half-lie, and inside those are where I’m most comfortable. His back locks up at the sentence. “I hated how you made me feel. I hated how I couldn’t feel right around you. I hated that I couldn’t act like your friend, and you couldn’t tell that I didn’t look at you like one. You’re so stupid.”

I kiss his blind spot, and he’s melting all over again. “I’d kill you with how much I feel for you.”

I flip him over, and he lets it happen. His eyes are red and puffy. I lean down and kiss him before I start crying, too. Before I know it, I can feel how my head combusts and chest bursts, and I have to kiss him until he knows just how much of a mess I am. I touch him everywhere I can, and I almost hate myself for how much I want this, but then Finny gasps into my mouth, and I know it’s all okay. Anything for Finny.

“Tell me now, Gene.” He’s not satisfied with my unrestrained indulgence of him. He’s not satisfied with my painfully honest hands and lips. Don’t you understand, Finny? I’ve been wanting you for months.

“Don’t make me.” Please.

“Please. Once. Be the first to say it to me.”

Don’t say it like that, you damn bastard. Everything I do is a goddamn love confession. You greedy bastard. Everything is for you. “Finny.”

“Don’t toy with me. Don’t you dare.”

I break away from his mouth and hide in his shoulder. I could cry from the frustration of both being seen and not being seen by Finny. From having to admit every single disaster of emotions I have toward Finny but him not recognizing any of it. He’s always believed that I’m much more stable and decent than I really was. I sincerely thought so, too, until Finny. Until Finny.

“You’re a blind fool. You’re a damn idiot.” You’re going to make me kill you one day, Finny. “I’m not toying with you. If anything, it’s the opposite. You want me to say it first? I have been saying it first, you’re just not listening. I’ve been saying it to you all the time. I’ve been saying it by myself and in front of you each time. Everytime I think of you, everytime I speak to you, everytime I just look at you, I’m saying it whether I want to or not.

Finny. I love you.” I laugh into his neck, hysterical and practically naked with the outrageous admission. “Is that enough for you, you damn fool? You stupid bastard? You tear me apart, Finny, so much so that I might do the same.”

A sob rips from Finny’s chest. “Gene.”

“What? That’s the truth.” Finny shouldn’t have pushed. Now, he’s found something he wasn’t looking for. He found the Mariana Trench when he was looking for a swimming pool, and he’ll drown in me. “You shouldn’t have asked.”

“I wish I’d known sooner.” Finny pulls me from his neck but doesn’t allow the luxury of a kiss to hide my wrecked face. “I love you, too, Gene. Just as much.”

I lean down to kiss him so my heart wouldn’t stop when looking at his honest face. “Never tell me that. Never. I don’t want to hear it. You’re too much, Finny.”

“You’re just as bad.”

“That’s a goddamn lie.” He’s a Grecian sun trailing my every footstep. “You’re the worst.”

“Am I really?” He smiles against my lips.

“Everything is your fault. You’re a villain, you know.”

“Are you the hero?”

“No.” Heroes are supposed to win. “I’m your casualty.”

“And I suppose I’m yours.” He laughs, low and quiet. “Since you might kill me one day.”

“I will. I swear to god, I will, Finny.”

“I’ll make sure it’s no one else.”

“Make sure.”


End file.
